Diamonds and Trees

Can love conquer all, even distance? A week ago, Niobe thought so; now she was not so sure. Her green eyes watched the blue lights of the space shuttle's antigravity drive propel the white craft into the azure sky from the Arizona spaceport, her red hair blowing in the summer breeze. There were small circular windows down the length of the craft for the passengers to look out of. But these passengers were shackled with chains, prisoners bound for the distant planet Hermes Prime. It was hard to get people to emigrate to such a harsh new world. The prison colony was one way to make that happen. Her fiance, Brunel Jones, was on that shuttle. She suspected that his punishment did not fit his crime. He was an engineer by trade and these were the kinds of skills needed on Hermes. So the fact that he failed to submit his tax returns before the required date hardly seemed a reason to deport him 25 light years away from her. The tears fell gently down her face as she remembered his chiseled features, his curly black hair and his blue eyes smiling at her from her memories.

Niobe clutched her tummy while she watched the spaceship rise. She was pregnant. She found out this morning at the doctor and so Brunel did not know yet. She wondered how she could tell him. She could not just pick up the phone and dial his number on that other world, in prison! Despair filled her heart. She knew that even if he managed to finish his five-year term, he would not be able to afford the ticket back home to her. The penal colony was a clever trick that forced those so deported to make a life for themselves on Hermes. They never sent murderers, thieves, or rapists to the planet, just highly skilled, useful people like Brunel who had committed minor misdemeanors. It was not fair, but Earth was overcrowded and unemployment was high.

Over the last few days, Niobe had studied the story of Hermes Prime and it was a remarkable one. It was the first exoplanet humanity had discovered that had the remote possibility of supporting life. After all, there was a very long list of requirements, including an oxygen atmosphere, the presence of key chemicals and the possibility of liquid water on the surface. It needed the right atmospheric pressure and temperature, which only occur in what was called the Goldilocks zone around a star.

But even Hermes was not a good prospect, when they found it, because it had no indigenous water and an elliptical orbit, which meant it periodically froze or burned. They were about to move on in their search when the current governor of Hermes, Gaius Gambino, then a scientist with the Space Force, had a brilliant idea. He corrected the orbit of the planet by crashing a water-ice and rock moonlet into the planet at exactly the right velocity and angle. He did this by fixing the 'Faster Than Light' (FTL) engines, which allowed travel between the stars, to a suitable local moonlet. As a result of the impact, he managed to permanently alter the orbit of Hermes Prime to a stable circular one, which was about ten degrees warmer on average than that of Earth. The ice then melted on the surface to form seas and the piles of rock that were left formed mountains. In a matter of just a few years, the planet became a viable exoplanet for human emigration. His success and his love of the planet made him the obvious choice to be its first governor and he had ruled it ever since.

Hermes Prime remained unattractive to Niobe, a biology student, however, because there was very little life on it outside the two or three human settlements. Life could not simply grow into the wastelands around these cities despite the presence of sunlight, water and space because a key ingredient for that growth was missing. The planet's carbon was locked into a hard diamond surface. Indeed, this was the main export from the planet. Ships loaded with diamonds regularly return from there. So a big challenge to the colonization drive remained. How could the diamonds be converted into carbon-based forms of plants like flowers, grass and trees so that life could spread across the empty wastelands?

As the speck of white of the space shuttle faded into the blue, Niobe pondered her options. She could stay and have her baby alone, or she could find some way to follow her man into the stars.

Three years later, the abundance of diamonds shipped from Hermes Prime had driven down their price. Niobe, who had finished her degree in molecular biology two years ago, was able to use them for her Ph.D. research project on converting diamonds into algae plant growth. Working with papers on research being done on the planet and by others on Earth, she was the first to pioneer the technique of using a nitric acid hydrate solution to spray diamonds. The potion was so strong that the diamonds would literally dissolve into a damp, nitrogen-rich substrate in which plants could grow. A second spray then covered this substrate with a special kind of algae spore. The algae fed off the substrate and grew to displace it with organic material in which plants could grow. The technique promised to be the miracle that would convert a glittering diamond world into a living, breathing one and the accolades for her work were already streaming in, even though she had not even completed her Ph.D. yet.

Niobe was determined to see Brunel again and now nursing his son Thomas, named after Eddison, one of Brunel's favorite engineers. She managed to arrange a transfer from her earth-based university to the one on Hermes Prime, where she could finish and test her research. She received sponsorship from the governor himself, who was anxious to meet her when she arrived on the planet. He would pay for her flight and her studies. She noticed that there was no statement about return tickets on any of the documentation that she received from him. She understood the price and was prepared to pay it to see Brunel again. It had been three years and still no word from him—not even a letter. But now, for the first time in a long time, she had some hope that she and her baby could be reunited with him.

The flight into space from Earth to orbit was the hardest part of the journey and her baby, Thomas cried the entire time. So she did not get to look out of the portholes of the shuttle and say her goodbyes to the greenery of Earth. The transfer from the space station to the Hermes Transport, a big space cruiser with an FTL drive, went smoothly. Its spacious accommodations for passengers would be converted after the passengers were delivered into cargo space for Hermes exports, mainly of raw materials, rare earths and of course, diamonds for the return journey. Almost no one left the planet after arriving, but she already knew that and she did not care so long as she could be reunited with Brunel.

On her arrival on Hermes Prime, she discovered that the governor had invited her to a special banquet at his official residence. On her second day on the planet, she traveled via the magnatube transport that stopped there. Thomas had a babysitter, and this was one of the first times she had been out for a meal alone in a long while; it felt strange. The governor's mansion was made of metal taken from the first colony ship to the planet. Much of the old city was similarly constructed from metal or even red brick, while the new outskirts of the city were made with bricks of diamond. She wondered if that would be a problem given her new research on dissolved diamonds.

The governor's mansion was built to impress with high ceilings covered with paintings and lights and she noticed much of the furniture was made of wood, which must have been expensive given that there were not vast forests surrounding the city and much of the wood or ready-made furniture would have had to be imported.

The governor, Gaius Gambino, was a handsome man in his mid-thirties. Tanned skin, dark hair, flashing green eyes and a muscular physique dressed stylishly in a tailor-made suit combined with a dominating presence around which all the activity in the room revolved. Niobe had heard he was not married. His first wife had died in a tragic accident in the early years of the planet's colonization. He greeted Niobe with a warm handshake and then kissed her on the cheek. He smelled good; his fragrance was a combo of lavender and cologne, and there was a feeling of energy and life about the man that she found attractive. She felt a tug in her heart, despite herself. He led her into the dining room, where his guests were waiting. To her surprise, she saw that Brunel was one of the guests.

Her heart jumped for joy upon seeing him and she smiled the most radiant smile from deep within. But he seemed distant to her and reacted strangely, only slowly rising to greet her. They hugged without kissing. He smelled strange and unfamiliar, but she was too happy to make a thing of it.

"But how come you are not locked up? I thought this was a prison."

"No, they put me to work almost immediately after I arrived, building things. You can probably see my work around the city. This is only a prison in the sense that I can never return to earth." He spoke with some difficulty and she felt he was concealing something. He did not look as happy as she felt and that disturbed her. But before she could press him on this, the governor interrupted the moment with a wry smile.

"So I am guessing you know each other." They both nodded, but the smiles were gone from their faces now.

"Well, that is great, but it makes my seating arrangement and the purpose of this meeting slightly awkward if you are friends," the governor said, rubbing the back of his neck while he spoke and looking at the pair as if slightly embarrassed.

"We are not as close as we used to be, the existing seating arrangements are fine. I will sit with my girlfriend on this side of the table."
Brunel spoke in a tone that Niobe did not recognize: hard and distant.

Niobe noticed the blonde woman next to Brunel. She had an incredible figure and was wearing a backless red dress with a plunging neckline that revealed a little too much of a fantastic pair of breasts. Niobe felt a little self-conscious and realized that Brunel had moved on. She had been replaced, yet she still wore his ring. Could he not have informed me of this?" she wondered. Her heart sank within her.

Niobe noted that the governor sat at the head of the table flanked by close advisors, while the name cards indicated that she and her ex-fiance should sit on opposite sides of the table facing each other.

"The existing arrangements will be fine," Niobe confirmed.

The meal proceeded with much laughter and frivolous talk. Niobe said nothing about Thomas and was determined not to be humiliated by the difficult situation. The governor kept all and sundry entertained with funny stories about the development of the planet and she found herself laughing at all his jokes, maybe a little too much. Brunel and his girlfriend also followed the governor's lead and appeared cheery and amused during the meal. But there was an undercurrent of something altogether more sinister now that she knew the truth about Brunel.

When the plates and food were cleared away and after a brief round of drinks in the drawing room, they returned to the tables, which were now bare for business. Brunel and his partner on one side and Niobe on the other faced off like combatants in a war just about to be declared.

The governor proceeded to speak first.

"I have invited the both of you, not knowing of your previous friendship, because you offer competing visions of the future for Hermes Prime. Brunel, you have successfully developed techniques for using diamond bricks and arches to build housing and bridges. Niobe, you have pioneered techniques that could transform our glittering but sterile world into a living and breathing one. These choices are contradictory ones and so I have asked Brunel the engineer and Niobe the molecular biologist to argue their competing visions in front of my advisers. His hand waved to indicate the rest of those gathered at the table. This is a choice between diamonds and trees, engineering marvels and the prospect of a green planet. We want the best way forward."

An advisor then explained in more detail the achievements of the pair for the benefit of those not familiar with them and why they were significant. He had even prepared a small presentation and projected it onto a 3D display in the middle of the table as he explained the accomplishments and competing visions of the couple.

As he spoke, Niobe watched Brunel's face darken and the look he gave her was in fact quite ugly. It was as though she were seeing devilry previously hidden from her. She realized that his success on this planet would be entirely undermined by her new technique of converting diamonds into the substrate of new life. Having recently mothered Thomas and felt his new life growing inside her, it seemed obvious to Niobe that life was the priority over large engineering marvels. She thought that Brunel could simply adapt his techniques to metal, stone, concrete and wood like on earth in the new world, which would be possible because of her research.

When the governor indicated Brunel, he was then asked to present the case for his diamond-based engineering.

"Thanks for the opportunity to speak. While I welcome the presence of my ex-fiance at this table and did miss her immensely in the year after I left Earth and before I met my current fiancee Desiree here, it is clear to me that the best way forward for the planet is not her way. The best way forward is to utilize our most abundant resources and build solid and lasting buildings and infrastructure that will serve our economic development. We are already doing that and it would be a great shame to simply throw all this way for a new technology that is actually quite dangerous regarding the planet's most precious resource." He then proceeded to argue that diamonds did not rust or spoil like metal or wood and were stronger than stone, making them a better material for building a new world. Greenhouses and hydroponics were a better and more efficient way to deal with the agricultural needs of the planet and would we not prefer to live in a glittering world of diamonds rather than surrounded by the spoiled and faded greens of swamps and forests?

As he sat down, Niobe felt deeply angry at his speech and at the situation as well. Given the opportunity to present her own case, she wanted to be as eloquent as Brunel had been, as she felt passionately that his vision was the wrong one. That said, she was not used to being put on the spot like this and felt nervous as she spoke.

"This is a sterile world and life cannot grow in palaces made of precious stones, however pretty and grand they are. We want our children to hear bird songs, walk through forests and run through meadows of open grass. We want to see creatures of land, sky and sea fill the empty spaces. I may never return to Earth, but we can make Earth happen here for us and for our children to enjoy as well. Diamonds burn at the temperature of an average house fire and release the toxic gas carbon monoxide. It is not safe to build cities out of them. Do we want our children to grow up in an infertile health hazard?"

As she spoke, expanding on her argument, she watched the anger on Brunels face and something broke inside her. She realized now that he was not the man she had thought him to be and that, in fact, she did not love this man in front of her. He may have fathered the child she had birthed and then raised alone, but his eyes glittered with the coldness and sterility of his precious diamonds, while her heart longed for life under oak trees and the song of robins and blackbirds.

She saw Brunel looking at her hand and the ring on her finger with barely contained fury. The diamond in the ring was gone, replaced with a green smudge. She had spilled some of her hydrates on it by accident in the lab. She liked the smudge of life better than the diamond, so she continued to wear the ring. She had thought that he would understand when they reunited. She now knew that was not the case and indeed, never would be. As she finished speaking, Brunel was about to speak again when the governor interrupted him with his concluding remarks.

As he spoke, Gaius Gambino smiled at Niobe and she looked again at his choices of wooden furniture, the old city made of brick and metal just through the window and the plants in the corners of the room. Niobe realized she had already won the argument even without the words with which he now confirmed that. He would choose life and trees over sterile diamond deserts.

His final verdict was pronounced moments later and Brunel rose to his feet in a clear rage. He pointed at Niobe, his finger shaking.

"I would take my mother's ring back to give to Desiree, but you have ruined it with your bohemian experiments and now it is worth nothing!" With that, he stormed out without another word. The advisors also left, leaving only Niobe and Gaius together. Niobe now felt the full force of what had just happened and burst into tears. Gaius moved to comfort her and she fell into his arms, sobbing for her lost love.

She knew that Brunel would hate her now for the rest of his life and that she had made an enemy that day in her ex-lover, but she also knew that she was right about the best way forward and it seemed this big, strong man holding her in arms understood that even better than she did and would support her vision being implemented.

She relaxed, stopped crying and yet the hug continued. She would have it no other way as she reached for a kiss.